Simple War
Total War, meets black and white 2, Dynasty warriors II, shadow of mordor, civilization and mount and blade with minor Dawn of War elements. THOUGHTS: * if anything is so complex that it needs an advisor to explain it, it should be redesigned or not even put into the game. * should be real time this prevents the world feeling so static and dead. * purposefully smaller maps to concentrate fun rather than extrapolate bordem. * units that do the same thing aren't fun, hundreds of the same unit isn't fun, stick to small unique units with unique abilities. * no bosses or other bullshit. * stay far far away from any tropes at all. * Dynasty Warriors style battle scenarios/unit difficulty, leader setups/capture points. * if anything requires huge GUI design-work it probably shouldn't be in the game either. UTILITY: * Black and White 2 style mouse/army control PLOT: * Several different novices have landed on an abandoned world. * They all have different goals in mind for their leadership and are at immediate conflict with eachother * Most of them are of basic skill and intelligence, and must rediscover old technolgies and grow these new landmasses. * the land of Mar is barren, but also full of forgotten power. WORLD: * Most terrain is desert and plains, to keep things simple. * It isn't randomly generated, there is one static map that's purposeful. * scattered resources like Civ provide unique benefits. * Map starts with few ruined cities which can be restored. * locations can exist on the map, holding locations can reveal temporary or more-permanent advantages, things like legendary equipment for your Leader, very powerful weaponry, or faction-wide production or armouring of incredibly high-tier weaponry or gear. * Resources are often unique, although some may be more common than others, such as clay, some are incredibly rare, like copper. * Some resources, in addition to rarity can also have purity, impure copper is valuable, but not nearly as profitable as a purer source. * The formation of some businesses relies on several factors, knowledge and resources, knowledge in itself is a form of resource that can be collected from precursor locations, which can unlock technologies. * it is unlikely if a technology is discovered by one Caste, that that same technology will be discovered by a second faction in the same game, leading to unique games. COMBAT: * Total War/Dynasty Warriors Style combat. * you may only have full control over your main unit, all other units are AI controlled, although will listen to your battle strategy. * you may lose equipment whilst in combat, in addition, enemies can pick up that equipment. * before a battle you will not know what enemies are armoured with, and how strong they are, or even how many men they actually have, you must rely on cadres to relay this information to you, cadres can be dispached before battles. Cadres can also be killed, which will make enemies gain Vigilance. * armies relax when there is no immediate threat, when resting, units will lay down weaponry, take off armaments and are no longer in formation, and may suffer from other effects such as tiredness or being drunk, cadres can relay this information to you. * Cadres can also report names of any identified Chapter Masters, however, when they do this, they can sometimes do so inaccurately with minor error. Cadres can also be sent to enemy towns in order to form Guilds. * People who kill or help kill memorable lords will themselves become memorable lords similar to shadow of mordor. * Most arenas are much smaller than Total War arenas. * combat is very quick. PROGRESSION: * map starts with neutrals novices who randomly spawn with no resources like in an RTS. * At the beginning, all novices are basic and have no difference between one-another, novices can be eliminated and never become leaders, a maximum of 16 novices at a time will spawn. * static story and quests will appear over time. * when a major world event happens, it will be highlighted. * story is similar to age of mythology style progression. * must find neutral novices, and recruit them, often at early stages of the game, they could be simply gathering berries or engaged in combat with wildlife or leaders. * future success depends on finding novices which can repopulate. * five or more novices constitutes a Guild, ten or more constitutes a Chapter, twenty or more and one city can form a Caste, Castes can grow to have up to 40 neutral and 40 warrior novices, it is likely that the player won't reach this cap. LEADERS: * Start with a single novice like in Mount and Blade. * When two novices decide to ally, they must elect a leader, and by default, the player assumes the role of leader. * if a leader defeats another leader the conquerer gets to decide the fate of the conquered, this can be execution, forced alliance, freedom or their own decision, if they decide to enter a free alliance then they proclaim the conquerer as the new leader, and cease to be a leader, at least for a while. * There will usually be several enemy Leaders , which can produce additional Leaders . * Leaders can attack eachother or ally. * Leaders can declare war, or form alliances between Castes. * Leaders can be customized as if they were RPG characters. * Can execute Leaders to stop them reforming and re-attacking. * as a leader you do not know of your enemies subordinates, or alliances. gathering this information requires interrogation of units after battles. * can hold Leaders for ransom, or inprison Leaders. * if all leaders die, a caste will become leaderless, this stagnates a caste until a lord appears to lead it, or reclaim it. the players leader cannot die. * emerging leaders like in mount and blade, clear, distincitve sages. * Leaders don't come from just anywhere, they grow from novices, every novice could grow into a Leader. NOVICES: * novices often start with no equipment and no history, and are basic. family history can impact certain factors, but most novices will be blank canvases with alignment to your cause. * Can recruit and upgrade novices from nothing up to seasoned veterans like in Mount and Blade. * novices don't randomly appear, a single peasant must be produced by two adults. * therefore each novice has a family tree. * novices can choose to be warriors or neutrals, with warriors eventually becoming leaders, and neutral novices becoming a variety of different things such as foragers, foresters, miners, entrepreneurs, scientists, programmers, mathematicians, craftsmen, defenders and engineers which all perform different tasks, and can form guilds. * novices loot from enemies they defeat, they can even loot from leaders they kill, they gain reputation for killing units. * novices that respect you will present you with very interesting items they find, others will refuse to trade-down. * disposition of a novice is usually based on parental skill/genetics. * neutral novices can travel with and fight as part of an army, but they are by default significantly weaker and far more timid in combat, neutral novices prefer to be housed within towns. * A single peasant will learn something, then this single peasant much teach other peasants and leaders to create skilled workers. * novices are extremely important, and time consuming to form bonds with, train and be produced. * Novices can evolve into leaders at any time, and can rebel against their parent armies. ARMY: * your units are as good as you make them, although you do not directly need to buy equipment, you must pay your units armament, and ensure there is a regular armament supply and repair. fees depend on the business that owns the services, they can raise or lower prices, they can also choose to relocate. You can eliminate these factors if you establish your own businesseses or guilds to perform these actions. * frustration from Total War comes from memorization of figures, in Simple War there are no figures at the beginning, the player learns these over time as they go. TOWNS * Towns can form or be reconstructed by Leaders alone, or by working together. * Castes can encompass a maximum of one town, however, Castes may ally with or subsidise other Castes, degrading them from Castes to Chapters, and a Chapter can claim a town as a home. * you can poison your own towns grain as a strategy if you know your city is going to fall to the enemy, or as a way to stop betrayal. * Guilds will naturally form in your town based on what your town is good at. Negative guilds can exist within your town, and you may locate and eradicate these. Some guilds can spread across the world. Guilds are a form of business, and can often do unique things, such as training mercenaries. * Entrepreneurs within towns establish their own businesses which export and import, businesses if they exist will automatically negotiate with other Entrepreneurs. They will open trade with other neutral or friendly towns, and will avoid unfriendly towns, towns must receive basic supplies, as well as trade goods and if access to items like food is restricted it can cause untold damage to your populace. * Having access to luxury food items or rare items can do positive things like increase influence and motivation of your workers. * Towns can defend exclusive right to nearby materials by constructing outposts, which are guarded by Cadres. * Civ style town placement, with mount and blade style walk-through upgrading taking multiple days for construction, buildings are similar to Black and White II's but with small RTS style improvements given other buildings also exist. * can unfound and purge towns. * the max size of a town is dependent on several factors, but a town will usually only produce new novices if there are residences, supplies and employment, this is a matter of seeing unemployment, starvation etc and finding a balance. * Towns may be influenced to integrate themselves into your own town, which is a quick and painless way to conquer cities. * Towns can be raided, in the case this happens, neutral novices will become Militia and will defend the town, alongside any Cadres within the town. They will take from a pool of pre-existing stored armaments, if these exist. * Towns may re-establish themselves after being eliminated by a Leader, this is if a number of previous residents, or influenced residents of other towns feel like the town once served a purpose such as it produced a resource. these towns become Merchant Cities and may provide benefits in exchange for coin. CASTES: * Caste traits are one of the main ways to change you and your units appearance and mechanics in ways that are sample-able but limited outside of major faction support. * You may conquer a Caste and gain access parts of their benefits, but full benefits can only be earned if defeated enemies are enslaved, and then teach your units. * When a city is reconstructed or constructed from nothing, a faction forms. * The founding Leader becomes a Sage. * Sages can form new Chapters. * new Chapters will do what you ask of them, and can raise their own armies. * you can assign a special type of Leader; called a Commandant, that will manage your Garrison and automate town tasks for you. * Castes can become more unique over time, for instance a Caste may come across ancient precursor technology making them far stronger and have unique architecture and equipment, or may become immortal meaning their populace cannot die outside of combat. * a Caste could discover the ability to manufacture Droids, meaning they can manufacture soldiers. * a Caste could gain the ability to talk to wildlife, and form an alliance (such as control caves that can randomly produce allied units) * most Castes will only ever achieve one of these things, and which is mostly dependent upon map placement. MECHANICS * purposefully hide information from players they really don't require to see. * no sprawling tech trees or bullshit abilities like percentage increases. * at max an army will be composed of around 40 soldiers, however this will be less. * the game favors speed over graphical intensity or clutter. * unlike a traditional stategy game of this type, the game works in real time and the game doesn't pause unless deliberately paused, there is plenty of downtime. * the player doesn't constantly see everything other players are doing and don't need to watch them make their moves. * the player doesn't need to immediately become a lord, or ever, they can play the game as a novice warrior or neutral in another leaders army and can even win the game like this. players may also form guilds and businesses. * nothing is dumb, everything will automate and regulate themselves if you provide things you're supposed to provide on time, the only people that will ask for your advice are your lords and vassals.